Recent WSJ headline: "Obamacare's Broken Promises".
Main thumbnail summary: "Every one of the main claims made for the law is turning out to be false".
http://tinyurl.com/acebm9t
These are not revelations even to Democrat Congressmen or the CBO, but Stanford business and law professor Kessler's summary of and evidence against the exposed myths gathers this short list of false claims all in one convenient spot:
Lower health care costs.
Smaller deficits.
Preservation of existing insurance.
Increased productivity.

Let me get this right. All price increases before Obama was elected were good for the economy, and showed the robust nature of the free market system for health care. All price increases after Obama was elected are his fault. No wonder you guys lost the presidential election. Nobody but you wing nuts believe that.

Let me get this right. All price increases before Obama was elected were good for the economy, and showed the robust nature of the free market system for health care. All price increases after Obama was elected are his fault. No wonder you guys lost the presidential election. Nobody but you wing nuts believe that.

Actually, health care costs as a percentage of GDP have stabilized for the first time in decades. But, we wouldn't want that to be in the conversation since it is contrary to the point these guys are trying to make.

We do not know if this stabilization is a function of the economy, obamacare or market forces. And, we have a rapidly aging population, so the odds of this trend continuing with or without Obamacare is not really likely.

This is not just a political rant, guys; it’s medical, and it WILL bite you and your descendants in the ass. YOUR MEDICAL CARE IS IN YOUR OWN HANDS, and it will get worse soon. Here’s just one example of many I’ve encountered with several medical issues and many doctors the past decade.

My heart feels fantastic at almost 70, but I’ve had decades of horrible lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides) which can produce silent but deadly damage. I thus consulted a cardiologist with the question, “How safe for me is very intense, often very prolonged, exercise over the next decade?”

Ignoring my medical, exercise, and diet histories and the latest peer-reviewed global medical research, he glanced only at my 30-year lipids profile and said, “Take this statin and come back in three months.” When I did, that doctor had moved on, so I asked another cardiologist in the same big clinic the same primary question above. He said, “The statin worked. Your numbers look good. We’re done here.” Both asked on the way out of the room, “Any questions?”, and both were huffy, surprised, and too uninformed, too arrogant, and/or too rushed to answer my questions.

That didn’t happen often a decade ago, it’s much more common now, and we will desperately wish for that much time with physicians as Obamacare kicks in. Even people I call my seniors are already screwed; anyone with years or decades left on his oxygen-converting clock is royally butt-farked.

Actual medical care is disappearing, and it will only get worse as increasingly socialized medicine keeps twisting the knives in our doctors’ bellies, backs, and paychecks and up to doubling -- or more -- the insurance premiums for MANY of us (I presume everyone’s seeing that on the news this week, straight from the sources who establish our premiums).

These cardiologists’ responses were cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all hackery at its worst. I accepted their pills only because I can easily observe the results, expand my research, and quit if I wish (unlike many irreversible medical treatments such as the radiation treatment my oncologists prescribe). I’m incensed that they refused to even consider such facts as these:
• Statins and very heavy exercise have been declared incompatible by peer-reviewed BJCP research, due to muscle pain.
• My last bout with statins crippled me for a year with widespread muscle pain.
• Statins’ benefit correlates with a heart advantage. That does not prove causation. Many physicians attribute the benefit to inflammation reduction, not LDL reduction.
• Statins favor the metabolism of omega-6 fatty acids, inhibiting omega 3s and increasing insulin resistance and the risk of diabetes, thus counteracting the Mediterranean diet .. the only diet proved to extend our lives.
• Metastudy suggests that statins may impair strength and aerobic performance as much as 40%.

All that for the two percentage point benefit of statins expected for me?

Isobars, Your observations here are quite accurate. Our so called health care system is anything but that. Doctors are the third leading cause of death according to an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association. This was published over a decade ago by Dr. Barbara Starfield. Most doctors don't even know how to take care of themselves.

Stay away from doctors, they do more harm than good. Look elsewhere for answers to your health problems.

Stay away from doctors, they do more harm than good. Look elsewhere for answers to your health problems.

At some point, we need 'em. But I've had to watch them like a hawk to stay alive this long. The ones that outright refuse to even look at the peer-reviewed literature they claim to base their evidence-based medicine on really piss me off.

The second cardiologist I saw -- the one who whined when I asked for my lipids test results -- has a moderate but highly localized pot belly, the kind that kills people by the thousands. He's putting his life at risk because he's too frigging lazy to shed 20 pounds of excess visceral fat.

Actually, health care costs as a percentage of GDP have stabilized for the first time in decades.

Well my costs per % of my GDP continue to rise without limit, oh yeah, and I continue to get less and less for my money. Our current system SUCKS. I avoid going to the doctor, because it costs money, in fact everyone I know does this: we avoid going to the doctor and put off routine check ups as long as possible, because it makes economic sense. I have no idea what Obama care will be like, but we're completely screwed at the moment. So the "argument" that iso-tard uses: "PANIC!!! PANIC!!! PANIC!!! Scary change is comming! We could start circling the drain!" .....well, we've already entered the drain with the Republican plan, so sorry pal, go sell crazy some place else, we're all stocked up here._________________Kansas City

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